Children’s Laureate Wales & Bardd Plant Cymru
Children’s Laureate Wales
The Children’s Laureate Wales is a national ambassadorial role which aims to inspire and empower children and young people across Wales through literature.
Founded in 2019, the role is awarded every two years to a talented and visionary Wales-based writer who is passionate about ensuring more children and young people discover the joy and well-being benefits of engaging with literature.
The current Children’s Laureate Wales is poet and performer Connor Allen, the second to be appointed to the role.
Connor’s appointment was announced on National Poetry Day 2021. He will be in the role until August 2023, working hard to make poetry accessible, fun, and relevant to children and young people across Wales.
The Children’s Laureate Wales role complements its Welsh-language sister project, Bardd Plant Cymru and the two roles contribute towards nurturing a healthier, more creative, and more diverse generation of readers and writers across Wales.
Connor Allen is a poet and multidisciplinary artist from Newport. Since graduating from Trinity Saint David as an Actor in 2013, Connor has worked with companies such as Taking Flight Theatre, Sherman Theatre, Royal Exchange Manchester, Tin Shed Theatre, BBC Wales and National Theatre Wales. He is a member of National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and was also the winner of Triforces Cardiff Monologue Slam, representing Wales at the London winners edition. Connor’s work is heavily inspired by elements of his own life such as grief, love, masculinity, identity and ethnicity.
He has written for BBC Wales, Sherman Theatre, BBC Radio 4 and Dirty Protest, and received Arts Council of Wales funding for the production of his debut play Working Not Begging – a one woman play about homelessness and grief. Most recently, he was shortlisted for Triforce’s Dave & UK TV Writerslam 2021, won the Literature Wales and Firefly Press Rising Star Wales Award 2021 and was a Jerwood Live Work Fund recipient in 2021. He is currently working on his one man autobiographical show, a poetry collection and a theatre adaptation.
Connor’s priority as Children’s Laureate Wales will be empowering children and young people to tell their own unique stories through poetry.
The Children’s Laureate Wales is committed to:
- Expanding children and young people’s access to literature, in particular children and young people from marginalised and under-represented backgrounds
- Improving children and young people’s physical and mental health and well-being through literature
- Increasing children and young people’s enjoyment of literature
- Empowering children and young people through creativity
The Children’s Laureate Wales keeps busy by:
- Running poetry workshops inside and outside of the classroom
- Penning official poems to mark special occasions and campaigns which are of interest to children and young people
- Creating online creative resources for children and young people to enjoy
- Championing the voices of Wales’ children and young people nationally and internationally
For further information, visit the Literature Wales website, or get in touch on childrenslaureate@literaturewales.org
Follow Children’s Laureate Wales on Twitter. Photography c. Literature Wales.
Bardd Plant Cymru
Bardd Plant Cymru is a national ambassadorial role which aims to inspire and empower children and young people across Wales through literature.
Founded in 2000, the role is awarded every two years to a Welsh-language poet who is passionate about ensuring more children and young people discover the joy and well-being benefits of engaging with literature. The project introduces Welsh-language poetry to children in an energetic, dynamic and fun way through workshops, performances and various activities. The project promotes creativity, communication skills and self-expression through the love of literature.
The current Bardd Plant Cymru is singer-songwriter and writer from Bangor, Casi Wyn, the seventeenth poet to be appointed to the role.
Casi’s appointment was announced on National Poetry Day 2021. She will be in the role until August 2023, working hard to make poetry accessible, fun, and relevant to children and young people across Wales.
The Bardd Plant Cymru role complements its English-language sister project, Children’s Laureate Wales and the two roles contribute towards nurturing a healthier, more creative, and more diverse generation of readers and writers across Wales. All activities are conducted through the medium of Welsh, but the scheme provides for and engages with children whose first language is not Welsh. The scheme is run by Literature Wales with the support of Welsh Government, S4C, Books Council of Wales and Urdd Gobaith Cymru.
Bardd Plant Cymru is committed to:
- Expanding children and young people’s access to Welsh-language literature, in particular children and young people from marginalised and under-represented backgrounds
- Improving children and young people’s physical and mental health and well-being through literature
- Increasing children and young people’s enjoyment of literature
- Empowering children and young people through creativity
Bardd Plant Cymru keeps busy by:
- Running poetry workshops inside and outside of the classroom
- Penning official poems to mark special occasions and campaigns which are of interest to children and young people
- Creating online creative resources for children and young people to enjoy
- Championing the voices of Wales’ children and young people nationally and internationally
For further information, visit the Literature Wales website, or get in touch on mailto:barddplant@llenyddiaethcymru.org
Follow Bardd Plant Cymru on Twitter